“END THE MADNESS. Recall the committee. Defund the CBC.” Credit where it’s due to Pierre Poilievre and the Conservatives for writing for radio, as I was taught at a CBC skills course many years ago: short and sharp, three beats, implied subject-verb-object.
The Tories are mad for this gimmick: axe the tax, build the homes, bring it home, fix the budget, stop the crime. It’s addictive and direct and Trumpy, apt to “win the vote” for them, and thus presenting, among other things, a direct existential threat to the CBC. It’s a threat that, starting this month, Catherine Tait, the outgoing president, CEO, and poster-person for bloated bureaucracy, gets to pass on to her successor, Marie-Philippe Bouchard, who hasn’t ticked off anyone significant—yet.
Jesus christ, I wish Pollievre would put down the fucking fascist playbook. Canada and the CBC are highly rated and respected for journalistic integrity in across respectable sources. And that’s the problem: fair and factual reporting threatens the lies constantly put forth by the CPC. But don’t worry, once he defunds the CBC, you’ll have no choice but to tune in to privately funded news sources, where “truth” is dictated by wealth before facts!
The fact that he’s been permitted to get away with lying constantly about the role of the CBC is a perhaps the biggest fucking insult I’ve had the displeasure of watching Canadians suffer.
Conservatives have been trumping up defunding the CBC at least as far back as Harper. It’s not exceptional that PP is doing the same. We need to push back hard if he gets a majority government against them following through with it. It’s what we had to do when Harper got a majority.
It’s an old Reform Party plank. Probably predates them, too. But it goes back at least to ol’ Preston Manning.
Removing the independent watchers is half their playbook – in addition to reducing tax for the rich, it’s all about removing guardrails on food safety, work safety, and now the guardrails on politics.